Technically following does give you access to information that only followers get in the form of game reviews
there is a privacy setting for this.
Make my public activity on itch.io visible to my followers and other users of the site
Public activity includes things like adding games to a public collection, publishing a game, submitting to a jam, rating a public game.
you can only follow things that appear in the global feed.
New projects Posts Collections Ratings
keeping followers hidden would make sense for pure publisher accounts. but all publishers here are users too, and all users might publish things. anyone can curate a public collection. and for users on social media, it is normal to see who is following you.
i wonder how it is on steam. those accounts are publisher only accounts.